New Delhi [India], February 5: Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Badr Abdelatty, will be visiting India from February 6 to 7. According to a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, Dr. Abdelatty will arrive in New Delhi on the morning of February 6. Later that day, he is scheduled to meet President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Following this, he will lay a wreath at Rajghat in tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. In the evening, he will hold discussions with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at Hyderabad House. The visit will conclude with his departure in the early hours of February 7.
India and Egypt have a long history of close ties, dating back to ancient times. Both nations shared common goals for independence, as seen in the alliance between Mahatma Gandhi and Saad Zaghloul. The relationship further developed into a strong partnership, with President Nasser and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru forging a close bond that led to the 1955 Friendship Treaty. The two countries established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level on August 18, 1947. India and Egypt were also founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961.
Since the 1980s, there have been five visits by Indian Prime Ministers to Egypt: Rajiv Gandhi (1985), PV Narasimha Rao (1995), IK Gujral (1997), Dr. Manmohan Singh (2009 for the NAM Summit), and Narendra Modi (2023). During Prime Minister Modi’s state visit to Egypt in June 2023, the two nations upgraded their bilateral relations to a Strategic Partnership, and PM Modi was awarded the ‘Order of the Nile,’ Egypt’s highest civilian honor.
Additionally, Prime Minister Modi and President Sisi have met on the sidelines of major international events, including the UNGA in 2015 and the BRICS Summit in 2017. PM Modi also held a telephonic conversation with President Sisi in October 2023, amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.